• Underdog Fantasy has named Game Safety Institute as its next GuardDog fund recipient
• Underdog Fantasy dedicated $1 million to the GuardDog fund, which helps support responsible gaming initiatives
• Game Safety Institute is the second recipient of GuardDog funding

Underdog Fantasy has named its next recipient of its GuardDog funds to help support responsible gaming initiatives.

The sports gaming media company announced it will help fund the Game Safety Institute’s (GSI) efforts to build wider product intelligence platforms to accurately assess risk for game types and develop opportunities to better educate customers on responsible gaming.

According to Underdog Fantasy, GSI develops and disseminates research and thought leadership for gaming platforms, games and player safety.

Second Grant Through GuardDog

GuardDog’s mission “is to identify, invest and help grow innovative startups that help real-money operators operate responsibly and players play responsibly.”

Underdog Fantasy announced the program in 2023 with an initial $1 million investment.

“Our clear aim with GuardDog is to support and help scale innovation in responsible gaming, and the Game Safety Institute is precisely the type of partner we look for – imaginative, with a commitment to rigorous testing and research to develop real, actionable solutions to enhance player safety across a wide range of products,” said Adam Warrington, Vice President of Responsible Gaming at Underdog, in a notice. “We look at responsible gaming a little differently: not as a challenge, but as an opportunity necessitating fresh, creative ideas to create a stronger and more responsible ecosystem for operators and players.”

GSI’s services provide useful and actionable insight for gaming operators and regulators who wish to ensure that product safety is considered an integral part of safer gaming.

In addition to an investment from the GuardDog fund, GSI will have access to top advisory, mentors, and investors and will be prioritized for integration into Underdog product offerings. These include responsible gaming advocate Brianne Doura-Schawohl; Dan Hartman, former Director of the Colorado Division of Gaming; Sara Tait, former Executive Director of the Indiana Gaming Commission; and Chris Grove, Partner at Acies Investments.

“The majority of investment and innovation in responsible gaming over the past 15 years has been centered on solutions focused on the player. As these initiatives start to mature, we anticipate increased regulatory and industry focus on product safety. A recent survey of major global operators showed that almost all understood the importance of product safety, however only a third are satisfied with their current approach to understanding product risk,” said Sarah Ramanauskas, co-founder of GSI.

GSI Joins idPair as Grant Recipient

Underdog Fantasy announced its first grant recipient, idPair, in March 2024. idPair’s technology creates a centralized view of an individual’s play and gambling activity across all applications and operators in a jurisdiction for regulators. This data can help provide for universal responsible gaming limits.

The company creates a centralized repository of transactional data to analyze consumer behavior across multiple gambling platforms. By connecting data, the company can give regulators a comprehensive view of each user’s gambling activity, regardless of how many sports betting apps they use. The company can also facilitate interventions for users exhibiting high-risk behavior between regulators, operators, and consumers while prioritizing data privacy.

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